Method and an apparatus for processing a broadcast signal including an interactive broadcast service

ABSTRACT

A method of processing a broadcast signal including an interactive broadcast service at a transmitter is disclosed. The method comprises generating an parameter table containing metadata about applications and interactive broadcast events targeted to the applications, dividing the parameter table into a plurality of parameter blocks, inserting each of the parameter blocks into each of a plurality of parameter table sections, generating a trigger which is a signaling element to identify signaling and establish timing of playout of the interactive broadcast events, inserting the trigger into a closed caption channel of the broadcast signal, transmitting the broadcast signal including the closed caption channel and a specific channel carrying the plurality of parameter table sections, wherein the trigger includes location information specifying a location of the parameter table in the broadcast signal.

Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), this application claims the benefit ofU.S. Patent Application No. 61/680,279, filed on Aug. 7, 2012, which ishereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing,receiving and processing a broadcast signal and, more particularly, to amethod and apparatus for providing broadcast content through a broadcastsystem and an interactive broadcast service associated therewith.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

With development of techniques such as broadcast network management,audio/video codec or a communication network used in a broadcast system,a broadcast system may provide higher-quality audio and video and avariety of content to viewers. Further, viewers wish to receiveadditional information related to broadcast content according to userexperience (UX). In addition, viewers are increasingly dissatisfied withpassive content consumption and instead prefer interactive content.However, a current broadcast system cannot satisfy viewer demands. Forexample, the current broadcast system cannot determine when additionalinformation related to specific broadcast content is provided or howadditional information is processed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatusfor processing a broadcast signal including an interactive broadcastservice that substantially obviates one or more problems due tolimitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide additional informationrelated to broadcast content at an appropriate time in the form of aninteractive broadcast service in a process of playing the broadcastcontent back.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, amethod of processing a broadcast signal including an interactivebroadcast service at a transmitter is disclosed. The method comprisesgenerating an parameter table containing metadata about applications andinteractive broadcast events targeted to the applications, dividing theparameter table into a plurality of parameter blocks, inserting each ofthe parameter blocks into each of a plurality of parameter tablesections, generating a trigger which is a signaling element to identifysignaling and establish timing of playout of the interactive broadcastevents, inserting the trigger into a closed caption channel of thebroadcast signal, transmitting the broadcast signal including the closedcaption channel and a specific channel carrying the plurality ofparameter table sections, wherein the trigger includes locationinformation specifying a location of the parameter table in thebroadcast signal.

Preferably, the parameter table section includes table ID fieldidentifying the parameter table section, protocol version fieldindicating a major version number and a minor version number ofdefinition of the parameter table, parameter table data version fieldindicating a version number of the parameter table, and sequence numberfield having a value same as that of all other parameter table sectionsof the parameter table.

Preferably, the inserting step comprises generating the plurality ofparameter table sections having common value of the table ID field,protocol version field, parameter table data version field and sequencenumber field, and inserting each of the parameter blocks into each ofthe plurality of parameter table sections.

Preferably, the parameter table sections are transmitted in advance ofuse via non-real time transmission.

Preferably, the method further comprises encoding type informationspecifying that the trigger is transmitted via the closed captionchannel of the broadcast signal, and inserting the encoded typeinformation into the closed caption channel.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes section numberfield specifying a section number of a parameter table section, and thesection number is incremented by 1 with each additional parameter tablesection in the parameter table.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes section numberfield specifying an order of the parameter table section in theplurality of parameter table sections.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes serviceidentification field specifying an identifier associated with theinteractive broadcast service offering content items described in theparameter table.

In another aspect of the present invention, a receiver for processing abroadcast signal including an interactive broadcast service isdisclosed. The receiver comprises receiving device configured to receivethe broadcast signal including a closed caption channel and a specificchannel carrying a plurality of parameter table sections, extractingdevice configured to extract a trigger which is a signaling element toidentify signaling and establish timing of playout of interactivebroadcast events from the closed caption channel of the broadcastsignal, wherein the trigger includes location information specifying alocation of a parameter table in the broadcast signal, trigger moduleconfigured to gather a plurality of parameter table sections each ofwhich includes each of a plurality of parameter blocks based on thelocation information in the trigger, wherein the parameter table isdivided into the plurality of parameter blocks, and form the parametertable containing metadata about applications and interactive broadcastevents targeted to the applications using the plurality of parameterblocks and processor configured to provide the interactive broadcastservice based on the formed parameter table.

Preferably, the parameter table section includes table ID fieldidentifying the parameter table section, protocol version fieldindicating a major version number and a minor version number ofdefinition of the parameter table, parameter table data version fieldindicating a version number of the parameter table, and sequence numberfield having a value same as that of all other parameter table sectionsof the parameter table.

Preferably, the trigger module further configured to gather theplurality of parameter table sections having common value of the tableID field, protocol version field, parameter table data version field andsequence number field, and extract each of the parameter blocks fromeach of the plurality of parameter table sections.

Preferably, the parameter table sections are transmitted in advance ofuse via non-real time transmission.

Preferably, the extracting device further configured to extract typeinformation specifying that the trigger is transmitted via the closedcaption channel of the broadcast signal.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes section numberfield specifying a section number of a parameter table section, and thesection number is incremented by 1 with each additional parameter tablesection in the parameter table.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes section numberfield specifying an order of the parameter table section in theplurality of parameter table sections.

Preferably, the parameter table section further includes serviceidentification field specifying an identifier associated with theinteractive broadcast service offering content items described in theparameter table.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concept of providing a real-time (RT)service and a non-real-time (NRT) service according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure for signaling an NRT serviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of a TDO parameter table (TPT)according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another part of a TDO parameter table (TPT)according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a capabilities_descriptor according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an activation message table (AMT) accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a trigger format according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an XML schema for providing URL informationwhich is a part of a response to a TPT request according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an XML schema for providing URL informationwhich is a part of a response to a TPT request according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the syntax of a trigger according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 shows the structure of TPT section according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the structure of a receiver according to anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing the structure of a receiver according toanother embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. The configurationand operation of the present invention shown in the drawings anddescribed hereinafter will be described in at least one embodiment,without limiting the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Although the terms used in the present invention are selected fromgenerally known and used terms, terms used herein may be varieddepending on operator's intention or customs in the art, appearance of anew technology, or the like. In addition, some of the terms mentioned inthe description of the present invention have been selected by theapplicant at his or her discretion, the detailed meanings of which aredescribed in relevant parts of the description herein. Furthermore, thepresent invention must be understood, not simply by the actual termsused but by the meanings of each term lying within.

Among terms used in the present invention, the term real-time (RT)service refers to a service provided in real time, that is, a serviceconstrained by time. In contrast, a non-real-time (NRT) service refersto a service other than the RT service. That is, the non-real-timeservice is not constrained by time. Data for an NRT service is referredto as NRT service data.

A broadcast receiver according to the present invention may receive anNRT service through a medium such as a terrestrial wave, a cable or theInternet. The NRT service is stored in storage of a broadcast receiverand is displayed on a display device according to a predetermined timeor a user request. In one embodiment of the present invention, the NRTservice is received in the form of a file and is stored in storage. Inone embodiment of the present invention, the storage is a built-in HDDmounted in a broadcast receiver. As another example, the storage may bea universal serial bus (USB) memory, an external HDD, etc. externallyconnected to a broadcast reception system. In order to receive and storefiles configuring an NRT service in storage and providing a service to auser, signaling information is necessary. In the present invention,signaling information is referred to as NRT service signalinginformation or NRT service signaling data. The NRT service according tothe present invention may be divided into a fixed NRT service and amobile NRT service according to a method of obtaining an IP datagram. Inparticular, the fixed NRT service is provided by a fixed broadcastreceiver and the mobile NRT service is provided by a mobile broadcastreceiver. The present invention will be described on the assumption thatthe fixed NRT service is provided. However, the present invention isapplicable to the mobile NRT service.

Among terms used in the present invention, the term interactive adjunctservice or interactive broadcast service refers to a data service orbroadcast service for providing an interactive experience to a viewer inorder to improve viewing experience. The interactive broadcast serviceincludes a triggered declarative object (TDO), a declarative object (DO)or a non-real-time declarative object (NDO).

Among terms used in the present invention, the term trigger is asignaling element for identifying signaling and setting when aninteractive service or interactive event is provided. The trigger mayserve as a time base trigger and/or an activation trigger. The time basetrigger is used to establish timing of playout of events. The activationtrigger is used to set an operation time of an event. Thebelow-described time base message may be used as the time based triggeror the time base trigger may be used as the time base message. Thebelow-described activation message may be used as the activation triggeror the activation trigger may be used as the activation message.

The time base trigger transmits a timestamp sampled at a time clock,which will be described in detail below.

The activation trigger transmits information indicating a triggeroperation or an event operation time.

A media time is a parameter for referring to a specific time whencontent is played back.

A declarative object (DO) may indicate an application or a display fordisplaying additional information related to broadcast content. The DOmay indicate an application or a display for displaying an interactiveservice or an interactive event related to broadcast content. One DO mayinclude one or more interactive events.

A triggered declarative object (TDO) indicates additional information ofbroadcast content. The TDO triggers additional information in broadcastcontent at an appropriate time. If a DO is executed by a trigger, thisDO may be defined as a TDO. For example, if an audition program isbroadcast, a current ranking of a preferred audition participant of aviewer may be displayed along with broadcast content. At this time,additional information of the current ranking of the auditionparticipant may be a TDO. Such a TDO may be changed through interactionwith a viewer and according to viewer's intention.

A non-real-time declarative object (NDO) may be defined as a DO providedas a part of an NRT service.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concept of providing a real-time (RT)service and a non-real-time (NRT) service according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

A broadcast station transmits an RT service according to an existingmethod, similarly to a current terrestrial broadcast (or mobilebroadcast). At this time, the broadcast station may transmit an RTservice and provide an NRT service using a bandwidth other than abandwidth used when transmitting the RT service or a dedicatedbandwidth. That is, the RT service and the NRT service are transmittedvia the same channel or different channels. Accordingly, a broadcastreceiver divides an RT service and an NRT service and stores andprovides the NRT service to a user using NRT service signalinginformation (or NRT service signaling data) as needed. The NRT servicesignaling information (or NRT service signaling data) will be describedin detail below. For example, a broadcast station may transmit broadcastservice data in NT and transmit new clips, weather information,advertisements, push VOD, etc. in NRT. In addition, the NRT service mayinclude specific scenes of RT broadcast streams, detailed informationand preview of a specific program, etc. in addition to new clips,weather information, advertisements and push VOD.

A conventional broadcast receiver (that is, a legacy device) may receiveand process an RT service but may not receive and process an NRTservice. That is, operation of the conventional broadcast receiver (thatis, the legacy device) is not influenced by NRT streams included in achannel for transmitting an NRT service. In other words, since theconventional broadcast receiver does not include a means forappropriately processing an NRT service, the conventional broadcastreceiver cannot process the NRT service even when receiving the NRTservice.

In contrast, a broadcast receiver (that is, an NRT device) according tothe present invention can receive and appropriately process an NRTservice combined with an RT service and thus can provide variousfunctions to a viewer as compared with the conventional broadcastreceiver.

In one embodiment of the present invention, one NRT service includes oneor more content items (or content or NRT content) and one content itemincludes one or more files. In the present invention, a file and anobject have the same meaning. The content item is an independent minimumplayback unit. For example, if there are NRT news including businessnews, political news and lifestyle news, the news may be an NRT serviceand business news, political news and lifestyle news may be contentitems. Each of business news, political news and lifestyle news includesone or more files.

At this time, the NRT service may be transmitted through the samebroadcast channel as the RT service or a dedicated broadcast channel inthe form of MPEG-2 transport stream (TS) packets. In this case, in orderto identify an NRT service, a unique PID is allocated to a TS packet ofNRT service data. In one embodiment of the present invention, IP basedNRT service data is packetized into an MPEG-2 TS and transmitted.

At this time, NRT service signaling data necessary to receive NRTservice data is transmitted via an NRT serving signaling channel. TheNRT service signaling channel is transmitted through a specific IPstream on an IP layer and, at this time, an IP stream is also packetizedinto an MPEG-2 TS and transmitted. The NRT service signaling datatransmitted via the NRT service signaling channel includes an NRTservice map table (SMT) and/or an NRT information table (NRT-IT). In oneembodiment of the present invention, the SMT provides at least one NRTservice executed at an IP layer and access information of contentitems/files configuring the NRT service. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, the NRT-IT provides detailed information of thecontent items/files configuring the NRT service. In the presentinvention, the SMT and the NRT-IT are referred to as a signalinginformation table.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a TDO may betransmitted as an NRT service or an RT service in addition to broadcastcontent. In addition, a TDO may be transmitted via an Internet protocolnetwork instead of a broadcast network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure for signaling an NRT serviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

The SMT and NRT-IT according to one embodiment of the present inventionmay be transmitted via a channel having a specific IP address and portnumber, such as a service signaling channel (SSC).

The SMT according to one embodiment of the present invention may includesignaling information for a plurality of NRT services and may includeservice name information, IP and port information, FLUTE sessioninformation, service ID information, service category information,content length information, storage reservation information, ISO-639language information, genre information and/or icon content linkageinformation with respect to each NRT service.

The service name information indicates the name of the NRT service andmay be used for interaction with a user. That is, the user may recognizethe service using the NRT service name and request the service.

The IP and port information indicates the IP address and port number forproviding the NRT service.

The FLUTE session information indicates a file delivery overunidirectional transport (FLUTE) session for transmitting a file relatedto the NRT service.

The service ID information is an identifier for identifying the NRTservice. The service ID information may be used as a linkage with theNRT-IT.

The service category information indicates a category of the service andmay indicate one of an RT service, an IP service, an EPG service or anNRT service.

The content length information indicates the length of content includedin the NRT service.

The storage reservation information indicates capacity of storagereserved for receiving the NRT service.

The ISO-639 language information indicates a language used for the NRTservice.

The genre information indicates the genre of the NRT service.

The icon content linkage information indicates linkage information of anicon describing the NRT service. The icon content linkage information isused for a receiver to receive an icon from an address indicated bycontent location information related to the content linkage if thisinformation matches content-linkage information of a FLUTE file deliverytable (FDT).

The NRT-IT according to one embodiment of the present invention mayinclude information about a plurality of pieces of NRT content and mayinclude service ID information, content name information, contentlinkage information, distribution start/end information, playback lengthinformation, content length information, media type information, iconcontent-linkage information, ISO-639 language information, captionservice information, content advisory information, genre informationand/or Internet location information with respect to each piece ofcontent.

The content linkage information is used for a receiver to receive a fileconfiguring NRT content from an address indicated by content locationinformation related to the content linkage if this information matchescontent linkage information of a FLUTE FDT. The content linkageinformation may be used as a linkage for linking the NRT-IT and a textfragment table (TFT). The TFT includes a text fragment used to provide adescription of the NRT service or NRT content. That is, the TFTtransmits a data structure supporting a plurality of languages and thedata structure includes data for providing a description of the NRTservice or NRT content using a plurality of different languages.

The icon content linkage information is connection information of anicon describing the NRT content. The icon content linkage information isused for a receiver to receive an icon of NRT content from an addressindicated by content location information related to the content linkageif this information matches content linkage information of a FLUTE FDT.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of a TDO parameter table (TPT)according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another part of a TDO parameter table (TPT)according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The TDO parameter table according to one embodiment of the presentinvention includes a TDO included in a segment and/or metadata of anevent included in the TDO.

The TDO parameter table includes a TPT element, a MajorProtocolVersionelement, a MinorProtocolVersion element, an id element, a tptVersionelement, an expireDate element, a serviceID element, a baseURL element,a Capabilities element, a LiveTrigger element, a URL element, apollPeriod element, a TDO element, an appID element, an appType element,an appName element, a globalID element, an appVersion element, acookieSpace element, a frequencyOfUse element, an expireDate element, atestTDO element, an availInternet element, an availBroadcast element, aURL element, a Capabilities element, a ContentItem element, a URLelement, a updatesAvail element, a pollPeriod element, a Size element,an availInternet element, an availBroadcast element, an Event element,an eventID element, an action element, a destination element, adiffusion element, and a Data element.

The TPT element is a root element of the TPT.

The MajorProtocolVersion element indicates a major version number ofdefinition of a table. A receiver may discard a TPT having a majorversion number which is not supported by the receiver.

The MinorProtocolVersion element indicates a minor version number ofdefinition of a table. A receiver does not discard a TPT having a minorversion number which is not supported by the receiver. In this case, thereceiver ignores the information or element which is not supported bythe receiver so as to process the TPT.

The id element may have a URI form and identifies an interactiveprogramming segment (or an interactive service segment) related to thisTPT. This id element may become “locator_part” of a correspondingtrigger.

The tptVersion element indicates version information of the TPTidentified by the id element.

The expireDate element indicates an expiration date and time ofinformation included in a TPT instance. When the receiver stores theTPT, the TPT may be reused until the date and time indicated by theexpireDate element.

The serviceID element indicates the identifier of the NRT servicerelated to an interactive service described in the TPT instance.

The baseURL element indicates a base URL combined and used in a frontend of a URL in the TPT. The baseURL element indicates absolute URLs offiles.

The Capabilities element indicates essential capabilities for displayingan interactive service related to the TPT. Information aboutcapabilities will be described below with reference to FIG. 5.

The LiveTrigger element includes information used when an activationtrigger is provided via the Internet. The LiveTrigger element providesinformation necessary for the receiver to obtain the activation trigger.

The URL element indicates the URL of a server for transmitting theactivation trigger. The activation trigger may be transmitted via theInternet using HTTP short polling, HTTP long polling or HTTP streaming.

If the pollPeriod element is present, this indicates that short pollingis used to transmit the activation trigger. The pollPeriod elementindicates a polling period.

The TDO element includes information about an application (e.g., TDO)for providing a part of an interactive service during a segmentdescribed by a TPT instance.

The appID element identifies an application (e.g., TDO) within the rangeof the TPT. The activation trigger identifies a target application forapplying a trigger using the appID element.

The appType element identifies a format type of an application. Forexample, if the value of the appType element is set to “1”, then thisindicates that the application is a TDO.

The appName element indicates the name of an application which isdisplayed to a viewer and is human-readable.

The globalID element indicates a global identifier of an application. Ifthe global ID element is present, the receiver may store an applicationcode and reuse the application code for later display of the sameapplication in the segment of the same or different broadcast station.

The appVersion element indicates the version number of an application(TDO).

The cookieSpace element indicates the size of a space necessary to storedata required by an application between application invocations.

The frequencyOfUse element indicates how frequently the application isused in a broadcast. For example, the frequencyOfUse element mayindicate that the application is repeatedly used on a time-to-time,day-to-day, weekly or monthly basis or is used only once.

The expireDate element indicates a date and time when the receiversecurely deletes an application and/or resources related thereto.

The testTDO element indicates whether the application is used for thepurpose of testing. If the application is used for the purpose oftesting, a general receiver may ignore this application.

The availInternet element indicates whether the application may bedownloaded via the Internet.

The availBroadcast element indicates whether the application may beextracted from a broadcast signal.

Each instance of the URL element identifies a file which is a part of anapplication. If one or more instances are present, a first instancespecifies a file which is an entry point. The file which is the entrypoint should be executed in order to execute the application.

The Capabilities element indicates capabilities of the receivernecessary to meaningfully display the application. Information aboutcapabilities will be described below with reference to FIG. 5.

The ContentItem element includes information about a content itemcomposed of one or more files required by the application. The URLelement identifies a file which is a part of the content item. The URLelement may identify URL information provided by the content item. Ifone or more instances are present, a first instance specifies a filewhich is an entry point.

The updatesAvail element indicates whether the content item can beupdated. The updatesAvail element may indicate whether the content itemis composed of static files or is an RT data feed.

If the pollPeriod element is present, short polling is used to transmitthe activation trigger. The pollPeriod indicates a time used by thereceiver as a polling period.

The Size element indicates the size of the content item.

The availInternet element indicates whether the content item may bedownloaded via the Internet.

The availBroadcast element indicates whether the content item may beextracted from a broadcast signal.

The event element includes information about an event for a TDO.

The eventID element serves to identify an event within the range of theTDO. The activation trigger identifies a target application and/orevent, to which a trigger is applied, using a combination of the appIDelement and the eventID element.

The action element indicates the type of a TDO action which should beapplied when an event occurs. The action value of FIG. 11 may includethe following meanings.

“register” means that resources of the application are acquired andpre-cached, if possible.

“suspend-execute” means that another application which is currentlybeing executed is suspended and a current application is executed. If atarget application is suspended, the receiver resumes the application ina previous state.

“terminate-execute” means that another application which is currentlybeing executed is terminated and a current application is executed. If atarget application is suspended, the receiver resumes the application ina previous state.

“terminate” means that the application is terminated.

“suspend” means that the application is suspended. A UI and/orapplication engine state is required to be preserved until theapplication is re-executed.

“stream_event” means that a specific action defined by the applicationis appropriately performed. The destination element indicates a targetdevice type for an event. For example, the value of the destinationelement may indicate that the event is executed on a main screen and/ora secondary screen. The destination element may be used as aplaceholder.

The diffusion element indicates a parameter for smoothing server peakload. The diffusion element may indicate a period T in seconds. Thereceiver may compute a random time in a range from 0 to T seconds andperform delay by the computed time before accessing an Internet serverin order to obtain content referred to by URLs of the TPT.

The data element includes information about data related to the event.If the event occurs, the target application may read and use this datain order to perform desired operation.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a capabilities_descriptor according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The capabilities_descriptor according to the embodiment of the presentinvention includes descriptor_tag information, descriptor_lengthinformation, capability_code_count information, essential_indicatorinformation, capability_code information, format_identifier information,capability_string_count information, essential_indicator information,capability_category_code information, capability_string_lengthinformation, capability_string( ) information, capability_or_set_countinformation, essential_indicator information,capability_codes_in_set_count information, capability_code information,format_identifier information, capability_strings_in_set_countinformation, capability_category_code information,capability_string_length information and/or capability_string( )information.

The descriptor_tag information indicates that this descriptor is acapabilities_descriptor.

The descriptor_length information indicates the length of data includedin this descriptor after this information.

The capability_code_count information indicates the count ofcapability_code information.

The essential_indicator information indicates whether capabilityidentified by capability_code information is essentially supported, formeaningful display of an interactive service or content item.

The capability_code information identifies specific capabilities. Forexample, the capability_code information may be used to identifycapability of a download protocol, an FEC algorithm, a Wrapper/Archiveformat, a compression algorithm and a media type according to the valuethereof. For example, the capability_code information may indicate thata FLUTE protocol is used as the download protocol. For example, thecapability_code information may indicate that an FEC scheme is not usedor a Raptor algorithm is used as the FEC algorithm. For example, thecapability_code information may indicate that a DEFLATE algorithm isused as the compression algorithm. For example, the capability_codeinformation may indicate that the media type is AVC standard-definitionvideo, AVC high-definition video, AC-3 audio, E-AC-3 audio, MP3 audio,AVC mobile video, HE AAC v2 mobile audio, HE AAC v2 lever 4 audio,DTS-HD audio, CFF-TT, CEA-708 caption and/or MPEG surround HE AAC v2.

The format_identifier information is equal to the definition ofregistration_descriptor( ) in section 2.6.9 of ISO/IEC 13818-1.

The capability_string_count information indicates the count ofcapability_string( ) information.

The essential_indicator information indicates whether capability ofinformation about a capability string following this information isessentially supported, for meaningful display of an interactive serviceor content item.

The capability_category_code information indicates a capability categoryfor a string value following this information. For example, thecapability_category_code information may indicate a capability categoryof a download protocol, an FEC algorithm, a wrapper/archive format, acompression algorithm or a media type.

The capability_string_length information indicates the length ofcapability_string( ) information.

The capability_string( ) information includes information aboutcapability. The capability_string( ) information includes informationabout the capability of the category identified by thecapability_category_code information.

The capability_or_set_count information indicates the number ofcapabilities “OR set”.

The essential_indicator information indicates whether capability “ORset” following this information is essentially supported, for meaningfuldisplay of an interactive service or content item.

The capability_codes_in_set_count information indicates the count ofcapability_code information in the capability set.

The capability_code information identifies specific capability. Forexample, the capability_code information may be used to identifycapability of a download protocol, an FEC algorithm, a Wrapper/Archiveformat, a compression algorithm and a media type according to the valuethereof. For example, the capability_code information may indicate thata FLUTE protocol is used as the download protocol. For example, thecapability_code information may indicate that an FEC scheme is not usedor a Raptor algorithm is used as the FEC algorithm. For example, thecapability_code information may indicate a DEFLATE algorithm is used asthe compression algorithm. For example, the capability_code informationmay indicate that the media type is AVC standard-definition video, AVChigh-definition video, AC-3 audio, E-AC-3 audio, MP3 audio, AVC mobilevideo, HE AAC v2 mobile audio, HE AAC v2 lever 4 audio, DTS-HD audio,CFF-TT, CEA-708 caption and/or MPEG surround HE AAC v2.

The format_identifier information is equal to the definition ofregistration_descriptor( ) in section 2.6.9 of ISO/IEC 13818-1.

The capability_strings_in_set_count information indicates the count ofcapability_string information in the capability set.

The capability_category_code information indicates a capability categoryfor a string value following this information. For example, thecapability_category_code information may indicate a capability categoryof a download protocol, an FEC algorithm, a wrapper/archive format, acompression algorithm or a media type.

The capability_string_length information indicates the length ofcapability_string( ) information.

The capability_string( ) information includes information aboutcapability. The capability_string( ) information includes informationabout the capability of the category identified by thecapability_category_code information.

The capabilities_descriptor may be transmitted via a region in which theabove-described elements or descriptors of the TPT may be included.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an activation message table (AMT) accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

The activation message table may include a majorProtocolVersion element,a minorProtocolVersion element, a segmented element, a beginMT element,an Activation element, a targetTDO element, a targetEvent element, astartTime element and/or an endTime element.

The majorProtocolVersion element indicates a major version number ofdefinition of the AMT. A receiver may discard an instance of the AMTindicating an unsupported major version number.

The minorProtocolVersion element indicates a minor version number ofdefinition of the AMT. A receiver does not discard an instance of theAMT indicating an unsupported minor version number. In this case, thereceiver may ignore an individual unsupported element or componentincluded in the AMT.

The segmented element may match the identifier of the TPT including anevent to which activation of the TDO and/or AMT will be applied and maybe used as the identifier of the AMT.

The beginMT element indicates a beginning media time of a segment towhich an activation time provided by an AMT instance is applied.

The Activation element indicates a command for operation of a specificevent at a specific time.

The targetTDO element identifies a target TDO for an event to which anactivation command will be applied.

The targetEvent element identifies a target event to which an activationcommand will be applied within the range of the target TDO.

The startTime element indicates a valid start time for an event relatedto a media time. The receiver may execute a command when the media timereaches the value of the startTime element.

The endTime element indicates the last of a valid time period for anevent related to the media time. The receiver may not execute a commandwhen the media time reaches the value of the endTime element.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a trigger format according to an embodimentof the present invention.

The activation message (or the activation trigger) and the time basemessage (or the time base trigger) may follow a general trigger formatin a specific transmission environment.

FIG. 7( a) shows the format of a general trigger.

<domain name part> may indicate a registered domain name. <directorypath> indicates a path expressed by a URL. Any one or a combination of<domain name part> and <directory path> may be used as a URL of anaddress or location on the Internet capable of acquiring a TPT for acurrent segment. <parameters> may include one or more of “event_time”,“media_time” or “spread” elements.

FIG. 7( b) shows an example of a format indicating “event_time”,“media_time” and “spread” elements.

The “element_time” element may identify a target event (use the formatof “e=”) or an event operation time (use the format of “t=”) within theactivation message. If the format of “t=” is not present, then thisindicates that the event is executed when the activation messagearrives.

The “media_time” element may identify a current time associated with atime base expressed by a time base message within the time base message.

The “spread” element may indicate delay by a random time in order toidentify operation (e.g., reception of the TPT from the server)performed by the time base message or distribute workload of a server byoperation (e.g., a TDO accessing the server).

Triggers can be delivered in the Broadcast Stream.

When triggers are delivered in the broadcast stream, Triggers shall bedelivered in the DTV Closed Caption channel, in the URLString command,as specified in CEA-708.2 Digital Television (DTV) Closed Captioning:Interactive Television Extensions. If the Trigger is less than or equalto 26 characters in length, it shall be sent non-segmented (Type=11). Ifthe Trigger is 27 to 52 characters in length, it shall be sent in twosegments (the first segment in a Type=00 segment and the second segmentin a Type=10 segment).

For interactive services using the TDO model, the URI_type field in theURI_data( ) structure shall be set to 0 (Interactive TV Trigger for TDOmodel). For interactive services using the Direct Execution model, theURI_type field shall be set to 2 (Interactive TV Trigger for DirectExecution model).

This delivery mechanism includes both Time Base Triggers and ActivationTriggers.

The activation message may be delivered in a broadcast stream. In thiscase, the format of the trigger may include or may not include a format“e=” and a format “t=”. At this time, the trigger may be delivered via aclosed caption service region. That is, the trigger may be delivered viaa channel for transmitting a closed caption service in a broadcaststream. If the format “t=” is present, the activation time is atimestamp associated with a time base. If the format “t=” is notpresent, the activation time indicates when a message arrives.

The time base message may be delivered in a broadcast stream. In thiscase, the format of the trigger may include or may not include a format“m=”. The format “m=” indicates a media time. At this time, the timebase message may be delivered via a closed caption service region. Thatis, a time base message may be delivered via a channel for a closedcaption service in a broadcast stream. If the format “m=” is notincluded in the time base message, the time base message may be used totransmit the URL of a signaling server. If the format “m=” is notincluded in the time base message, the format “t=” may not be includedin the activation message.

Activation messages can be delivered via Internet. When delivered viaInternet, Activation messages shall be delivered using either or both ofthe following mechanisms. Firstly, individual Activation Trigger can bedelivered. When individual Activation Triggers are delivered via theInternet, they shall be delivered using HTTP short polling, long pollingor streaming. The format of the Activation Triggers shall be same aswhen they are delivered via broadcast stream. Secondly, bulk ActivationTrigger can be delivered. When Activation Triggers are delivered via theInternet in bulk, the Activation Triggers for a segment shall bedelivered via HTTP along with the TPT for the segment, in the form of amulti-part MIME message, with the TPT as the first part of the message,and an Activation Messages Table (AMT) as the second part of themessage.

When Internet delivery of Activation Triggers is available, the URLattribute of the LiveTrigger element in the TPT indicates the ActivationTrigger Server which can deliver them. If the pollPeriod attribute ofthe LiveTrigger element is present in the TPT, this indicates that HTTPshort polling is being used, and it indicates the polling period areceiver should use. If the pollPeriod attribute of the LiveTriggerelement is not present in the TPT, this indicates that either HTTP longpolling or HTTP streaming is being used.

Regardless of which protocol is being used, the receiver is expected toissue an HTTP request to the Activation Trigger Server with the queryterm: “?mt=<media_time>”, where <media_time> is the current media timeof the viewed content.

If short polling is being used, the response from the Activation TriggerServer shall contain all the Triggers that have been issued within thetime interval of length pollPeriod ending at <media_time>. If more thanone Activation Trigger is returned, they shall be separated by one ormore white space characters. If no Activation Triggers are returned, theresponse shall be empty.

If HTTP long polling or HTTP streaming is being used, the ActivationTrigger Server shall wait to return a response until the media time whenan Activation Trigger would be delivered in the broadcast stream. Atthis time it shall return the Activation Trigger.

If HTTP long polling is being used, the Activation Trigger Server shallclose the session after returning an Activation Trigger. The receiver isexpected to immediately issue another request, with an updated mediatime.

If HTTP streaming is being used, the Activation Trigger Server shallkeep the session open after returning each Activation Trigger, and itshall deliver additional Activation Triggers over the session as thetime arrives for them to be delivered.

In all cases the HTTP response shall contain an HTTP Response HeaderField of one of the following forms to signal the delivery mode:

ATSC-Delivery-Mode: ShortPolling [<poll-period>]

ATSC-Delivery-Mode: LongPolling

ATSC-Delivery-Mode: Streaming

The <poll-period> parameter shall indicate the recommended intervalbetween polls for the succeeding polls.

If automatic content recognition (ACR) is applied to a broadcastreceiver, an activation message may be delivered via the Internet. Inthis case, the format of the trigger may include a format “e=” and mayor may not include a format “t=”. The trigger format may be deliveredusing HTTP short polling, long polling or streaming. Alternatively, thetrigger format may be delivered via HTTP in the form of a file.

The time base message may be delivered via the Internet. In the ACRenvironment, the broadcast receiver may not access a closed captionservice included in a broadcast stream. In this situation, the receiverneeds to recognize a video frame and synchronize the video frame and atime base. Accordingly, in the ACR environment, a time message may bedelivered via the Internet. In this case, the time base message may bedelivered in the form of a response from an ACR server. Alternatively,the time base message may be acquired from watermarks.

Through a process of generating a service for a segment, a folderincluding a TDO and another content item, a TPT file of an XML formatand/or an activation message file (AMF) or an activation message table(AMT) of an XML format may be generated.

If the time base message and the activation message are delivered via aclosed caption service, a method for processing the time base messageand the activation message by a broadcaster may include a segment modewithout an explicit time base, a segment with an explicit time base or aservice mode with an explicit time base. Such modes may be mixed in abroadcast in segment units.

In segment mode without explicit time base, Activation messages includeno time stamp, so that the activation time of each message is thedelivery time of the message, and Time Base messages also include notime stamp, so that their only purpose is to provide the URL of theSignaling Server that can deliver TPT files. Time Base messages can evenbe omitted entirely in this mode, relying on the URL in the Activationmessages to provide the URL of the Signaling Server, but then receiverswill not be able to retrieve a TPT and start downloading TDOs untilafter the first Activation message appears, delaying the response to thefirst Activation message by quite a bit.

In this case Time Base messages that appear in CC service contain the“locator_part” of the “Trigger” format and possibly the “spread” term,but no “media_time” term, and Activation messages that appear in CCservice #6 contain the “locator_part” of the “Trigger” format, the“event_time” term, and possibly the “spread” term, but with no “t=” partin the “event_time” term. The “locator_part” of both Time Base andActivation messages is the current segmentId. This URL can also be usedto retrieve the TPT for the segment via the Internet.

In segment mode with explicit time base, Time Base messages include atime stamp, to define a time base, and Activation messages might includea time stamp, to define the activation time relative to the time base,or they might include no time stamp, indicating that the activation timeis the arrival time of the message.

In this case Time Base messages that appear in CC service contain the“locator_part” of the “Trigger” format, the “media_time” term, andpossibly the “spread” term, and Activation messages that appear in CCservice contain the “locator_part” of the “Trigger” format, the“event_time” term, and possibly the “spread” term, with or without the“t=” part in the “event_time” term. The “locator_part” of both Time Baseand Activation messages is the current segmentId, and the time base isspecific to the segment. This URL can also be used to retrieve the TPTfor the segment via the Internet.

In service mode with explicit time base, Time Base messages include atime stamp, to define a time base, and Activation messages might ormight not include a time stamp. The time base extends across multiplesegments, rather than being specific to a single segment. The“locator_part” of the Time Base messages is an identifier of the timebase, and also a URL that can be used to retrieve TPTs for the servicevia the Internet.

In any case the Trigger Insertion Server that inserts the triggers intoCC service should work from the AMF, translating the Activation messagesfrom the XML format in the AMF into the trigger format specified fordelivery in CC service. In the case of an Activation element with noendTime attribute, a single trigger should be inserted with activationtime equal to the startTime attribute. In the case of an Activationelement with both startTime and endTime elements, a sequence of triggersshould be inserted with the same targetId value. The first trigger inthe sequence should have activation time equal to the startTimeattribute, the last trigger in the sequence should have activation timeequal to the endTime attribute, and there should be a fixed timeinterval between the activation times of the triggers in the sequence(except that the interval between the next-to-last and last trigger inthe sequence can be shorter). The length of this fixed time intervalshould be configurable.

When the Time Base and Activation messages are in segment mode, the timebase is specific to the segment. It starts with the “beginMT” value atthe beginning of the segment, and runs through the segment. The“startTime” and “endTime” values of individual Activations are relativeto the “beginMT” value. When the Time Base and Activation messages arein service mode, the time base spans segments, and the “beginMT” valuefor each segment is adjusted to take account of the service time baseand the broadcast schedule.

Time Base Messages and/or Activation Messages can be delivered viaInternet.

The only time it is necessary to deliver Time Base and Activationmessages via the Internet is situations where a receiver does not haveaccess to CC service, for example, in ACR situations. In this case TimeBase messages come from the ACR server. Activation messages can bedelivered via short polling, long polling or streaming, but all of theseimpose a lot of overhead on the receivers and the server. Activationmessages can also be delivered in the form of an AMF, but this providesa good deal of information about the length of segments, facilitating adkillers. There might be other alternatives.

TPTs can be delivered via Broadcast.

For delivery via broadcast, TPTs are translated from their XML formatinto an equivalent binary format, and then encapsulated in NRT-styletable instances for delivery in the broadcast, one TPT per tableinstance. The TPT for the current segment is always present. TPTs forone or more future segments may also be present.

TPTs can be delivered via Internet.

When delivered via Internet, TPTs are delivered as individual files oras parts of a multi-part MIME message. The response to a request willalways include the TPT for the current segment. It may include TPTs forone or more future segments as well.

The locator of TDOs and Content Items can be moved.

Networks and stations will often need to provide their own HTTP serversfor delivering TDOs and content items (files) used by TDOs. When this isdone, the baseURL in the TPT can be adjusted to reflect the location ofthe server.

Multiple Segments can be combined into one segment.

In order to thoroughly obfuscate boundaries between segments, the TPTsand AMFs for multiple segments can be combined into a single TPT andAMF. The steps required to do this includes:

1. Identify the set of segments to be combined.

2. Create a new TPT with a new segmentId.

3. If any of the segments being combined have live activations, providea relay server that provides access to all of them, and put theparameters for this server in the “LiveTrigger” element.

4. Apply the baseURL for each segment as needed to get the full TDO andContentItem URLs. (It may be possible to identify a shorter baseURL thatis common to all the segments being combined, and retain that as abaseURL for the combined segment.)

5. Revise appId values as needed to remove conflicts.

6. Insert into the new TPT all the revised TDO elements for all thesegments being combined.

7. Create a new AMF with segmentId equal to the new segmentId of thecombined TPT.

8. Select an appropriate new “beginMT” value for the new AMF.

9. Adjust the targetId values of all the Activation elements in the AMFfiles for the segments being combined to reflect any changes in appIdvalues.

10. Adjust the startTime and endTime values of all the Activationelements in the AMF files for the segments being combined to reflect thenew “beginMT” value and the broadcast schedule for the segments beingcombined.

11. Insert all the revised Activation elements into the new AMF.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an XML schema for providing URL informationwhich is a part of a response to a TPT request according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The TPT may be delivered via a broadcast stream. If the TPT is deliveredvia a broadcast stream, the TPT may be changed to a binary format. Ifthe TPT is delivered via the broadcast stream, the TPT may be deliveredaccording to an NRT transmission method. If the TPT is delivered in NRT,the TPT may be compressed to an NRT private section including one TPTper table section. In this case, a subnet_id field in the NRT privatesection may be used as a sequence number for identifying other tableinstances in a serving signaling channel (SSC).

The TPT may be delivered via the Internet. If the TPT is delivered viathe Internet, the TPT may be delivered via HTTP. The URL of the TPT forthe current segment may be identified using <domain name part> and/or<directory path> in the time base message. The receiver may requesttransmission of the TPT from a server for providing the TPT. Theresponse to the request for transmission of the TPT may include only theTPT or may include a 2-part MIME message. A first part of the 2-partMIME message may include the requested TPT and a second part of the2-part MIME message may include a list of URLs. The list of URLs may betransmitted in the form of an XML document shown in FIG. 8.

The list of the URLs in the form of the XML document may include aUrlList element, a TptUrl element and/or an NrtSignalingUrl element.

The UrlList element includes a list of URLs used in a receiver.

The TptUrl element includes a URL for providing a TPT for a futuresegment. If a plurality of TptUrl elements is included, the TptUrlelements may be assigned according to the order of segments in abroadcast.

The NrtSignalingUrl element includes the URL of the server from whichthe receiver can acquire an NRT signaling table for virtual channels ina current broadcast stream.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an XML schema for providing URL informationwhich is a part of a response to a TPT request according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

A broadcaster may use information about the type of broadcast contentcurrently viewed or consumed by each receiver and a preferred databroadcast program in a broadcast business. In this case, the receiverneeds to transmit information about user preference for broadcastcontent consumed by each receiver to a specific server. Accordingly, anelement indicating the URL of the server for usage reporting will beadded to a URL list element of the URL information provided by thereceiver.

A URL List contains certain URLs of potential use to a receiverpresenting interactive services. The URL List may contain at least oneof URLs of TPTs for one or more future segments, URL of an NRT SignalingServer from which information about stand-alone NRT services in thebroadcast stream can be retrieved, and URL of a Usage Reporting Serverto which usage reports can be sent.

The URL List shall be an XML document containing a “UrlList” elementthat conforms to the schema definitions in the XML schema.

The XML schema of URL List element includes UrlList element, TptUrlelement, and/or NrtSignalingUrl element.

UrlList element contains a list of URLs that are useful to a receiver.

TptUrl element of the UrlList element shall contain the URL of a TPT fora future segment. When multiple TptUrl elements are included, they shallbe arranged in order of the appearance of the segments in the broadcast.

NrtSignalingUrl element of the UrlList element shall contain the URL ofa server where receivers can obtain NRT signaling tables for all thevirtual channels in the current broadcast stream.

UrsUrl element of the UrlList element shall contain the URL of a serverwhere receivers can send usage (e.g. audience measurement) reports,using a certain protocol described in this application.

In one embodiment of the present invention, information included in theUsrUrl may include the URL of the usage reporting server. In this case,the receiver may perform usage reporting with respect to the usagereporting server according to a predetermined protocol (e.g., a datastructure, an XML file, etc.).

According to another embodiment of the present invention, informationincluded in the UsrUrl element may identify the TDO executed at a webbrowser of the receiver. In this case, the UsrUrl element indicates thelocation of the usage reporting TDO and the TDO may directly gather andreport information about broadcast content stored in or currentlyconsumed by the receiver using the API (e.g., file APIs or usagereporting APIs) of the web browser of the receiver. That is, usagereporting may be performed through the TDO. In one embodiment, the TDOmay use JavaScript API “XMLHttpRequest” to transmit the gathered data tothe specific server.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the syntax of a trigger according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The broadcast may provide two models of interactive additional dataservice (or interactive broadcast service/content) to the user. One ofthe models is a triggered declarative object (TDO) model and the otherthereof is a direct execution model.

In the TDO model signals are delivered in the broadcast stream or viathe Internet in order to initiate TDO events, such as launching a TDO,terminating a TDO, or prompting some task by a TDO. These events areinitiated at specific times, typically synchronized with the audio-videoprogram. When a TDO is launched, it provides the interactive features itis programmed to provide.

In the direct execution model, a Declarative Object (DO) is launchedautomatically as soon as the virtual channel is selected. Itcommunicates over the Internet with a backend server via a “SynchronizedContent Protocol.” The server gives detailed instructions for providinginteractive features—creating displays in specific locations on thescreen, conducting polls, launching other specialized DOs, etc., allsynchronized with the audio-video program. (For the near term theSynchronized Content Protocol is proprietary to a particularbroadcaster, but it could be standardized at some future time.)

Most of this section deals with the signaling for the TDO model, but thesignaling necessary to launch the DO for the Direct Execution model isincluded as well.

The basic concept behind the TDO model is that the files that make up aTDO, and the data files to be used by a TDO to take some action, allneed some amount of time to be delivered to a receiver, given theirsize. While the user experience of the interactive elements can beauthored prior to the broadcast of the content, certain behaviors mustbe carefully timed to coincide with events in the program itself, forexample the occurrence of a commercial advertising segment.

The TDO model separates the delivery of declarative objects andassociated data, scripts, text and graphics from the signaling of thespecific timing of the playout of interactive events.

Referring to FIG. 9, syntax for the Trigger is described. As mentionedbefore, both Activation messages and Time Base messages can have thegeneral “Trigger” format under certain delivery circumstances. Thesyntactic definition here is described using the Augmented Backus-NaurForm (ABNF) grammar, except that the vertical bar symbol “|” is used todesignate alternatives. Rules are separated from definitions by an equal“=”, indentation is used to continue a rule definition over more thanone line, literals are quoted with “ ”, parentheses “(” and “)” are usedto group elements, optional elements are enclosed in “[” and “]”brackets, and elements may be preceded with <n>* to designate n or morerepetitions of the following element; n defaults to 0. And elements maybe preceded with <n>*<m> designate n or more repetitions and m or lessrepetitions of the following element. This Trigger syntax is based onthe absolute URI excluding the <scheme> and “://” portion.

The trigger may include locator_part and terms. Terms may be omitted. Ifterms are present, locator_part and terms may be connected by ‘?’.

The locator_part may include a hostname part and a path_segments part,which may be connected by ‘/’.

The hostname may include domainlabel and toplabel, and domainlabel maybe repeated 0 times or more along with ‘.’. That is, hostname mayinclude repeated domainlabel connected with toplabel or include onlytoplabel.

domainlabel may include one alphanum or include alphanum or “-”repeatedly inserted between alphanum and alphanum 0 times or more.

Here, alphanum may mean alpha or digit.

Here, alpha may be one of lowalpha or upalpha.

Here, lowalpha may be one of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n,o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, and z.

Here, upalpha may be one of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O,P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.

Here, digit may be one of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

toplabel includes one alpha or include alphanum or “-” repeatedlyinserted between alpha and alphanum 0 times or more.

path_segments includes one segment, which is followed by segmentrepeated 0 times or more. At this time, segments may be connected by‘/’.

Here, segment includes alphanum which is repeated once or more.

Terms may include one of event_time or media_time, which may be followedby spread or others. Spread and others may be omitted. If spread andothers are present, ‘&’ may be placed ahead of spread and others andspread and others may be placed after event_time or media_time.

Here, spread may include digit repeated once or more after ‘s=’.

Event_time may include digit repeated once or more after ‘e=’ or includehexdigit repeated once or more or seven times or less after ‘&t=’. ‘&t=’and the back part thereof may be omitted.

Here, hexdigit may be one of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, eand f.

Media_time may include hexdigit repeated once or more or less than seventimes after ‘m=’.

Others may include one “other” or “other” followed by ‘&’ and “other”.

Here, other may include resv_cmd and alphanum which are repeated once ormore and are connected by ‘=’.

Here, resv_cmd may be alphanum excluding ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘E’, ‘m’, ‘M’, ‘s’,‘S’, ‘t’, and ‘T’.

The length of the trigger may not exceed 52 bytes. In addition, thehostname portion of the Trigger can be a registered Internet domainname.

A Trigger can be considered to consist of three parts.

<domain name part>/<directory path>[?<parameters>]

The <domain name part> can be a registered domain name, <directory path>can be a path as it would appear in a URI.

The <domain name part> references a registered Internet domain name. The<directory path> is an arbitrary character string identifying adirectory path under the control and management of the entity who ownsrights to the identified domain name.

In the TDO model, the combination of <domain name part> and <directorypath> shall uniquely identify a TPT that can be processed by a receiverto add interactivity to the associated content.

In the direct execution model, the combination of <domain name part> and<directory path> shall uniquely identify the DO to be launched.

The combination of <domain name part> and <directory path> can be theURL of an Internet location where the TPT for the current segment can beobtained.

That is, the trigger may identify the TPT using <domain name part> and<directory path>. Through <domain name part> and <directory path>, it ispossible to confirm the TPT to which the trigger applies. The roleperformed by applying the trigger to the TPT depends on <parameters>.

Hereinafter, <parameters> will be described.

<parameters> may consist of one or more of “event_time”, “media_time”,or “spread”.

Next, “event_time”, “media_time” and “spread” of the syntax shown inFIG. 4 will be described.

event_time=“e=” 1*digit [“&t=” 1*7hexdigit]

media_time=“m=” 1*7hexdigit

spread=“s=” 1*digit

The “event_time” term can be used in an Activation trigger to identifythe targeted event (“e=” term) and the time the event should beactivated (“t=” term). When the “t=” term is absent, that means theevent should be activated at the time the trigger arrives.

That is, “e=”, which is an interactive event ID term, can reference theappID in the associated TPT of the TDO targeted by the event, theeventID of the specific event, and the dataID of the Data element to beused for this event activation.

“t=”, which is an optional timing value term, can indicate a new mediatiming for the designated event. If the “t=” part is not present, thatcan mean the timing for the designated event is the arrival time of theTrigger.

The “media_time” term (“m=” term) can be used in a Time base trigger toidentify the current time relative to the time base represented by theTime base trigger. Content identifier information (“c=” term) foridentifying currently displayed content may be further included inmedia_time. For “c=” term, the direct execution model will be describedbelow.

That is, “m=”, which is a media timestamp term, followed by a characterstring of 1 to 8 characters in length representing a hexadecimal number,can indicate the current Media Time.

The “spread” term can be used to indicate that any action taken inresponse to a Time base trigger (such as retrieving a TPT from a server)or an Activation trigger (such as causing a TDO to access a server)should be delayed a random amount of time, to spread out the workload onthe server.

“s=” term can indicate the number of seconds of time over which allreceivers should attempt to access the Internet server identified in theTrigger. Each individual receiver can be expected to derive a randomtime within the designated interval and delay the access request by thatamount, thereby spreading in time the peak in demand that mightotherwise occur at the first appearance of a Trigger at the receiver.

A Trigger containing a <media time> parameter can be called a Time basetrigger, since it is used to establish a time base for event times.

A Trigger containing an <event time> parameter can be called anActivation Trigger, since it sets an activation time for an event.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another part of a TPT of a binary formataccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

That is, FIGS. 11 to 15 show the whole structure of the TPT of thebinary format according to the embodiment of the present invention.

When TPTs are delivered in the broadcast stream, TPTs are translatedinto a binary NRT-style signaling table format and encapsulated inNRT-style private sections, one TPT per table instance. The subnet_idfield in the NRT private section syntax is used as a sequence number todistinguish between different table instances in the Service SignalingChannel.

Among the elements or information described with reference to FIGS. 3and 4, some elements or information may be omitted from the TPT of thebinary format. In this case, the omitted elements or information may becompressed and transmitted in a header for transmission of the TPT ofthe binary format in the broadcast stream. For example, the major/minorprotocol Version element, the serviced element and/or the tptVersionelement may be omitted from the TPT of the binary format.

TPT of binary format includes expire_date_included field,segment_id_length field, segment_id field, base_URL_field, base_URLfield, expire_date field, trigger_server_URL_length field,trigger_server_URL field, trigger_delivery_type field, poll_periodfield, num_apps_in_table field, amid field, app_type_included field,app_name_included field, global_id_included field, app_version_includedfield, cookie_space_included field, frequency_of use_included field,expire_date_included field, app_type field, app_name_length field,app_name field, global_id_length field, global_id field, app_versionfield, cookie_space field, frequency_of use field, expire_date field,test app field, available_on_internet field, available_in_broadcastfield, number_URLs field, URL_length field, URL field,number_content_items field, updates_avail field, avail_internet field,avail_broadcast field, content_size_included field, number_URLs field,URL_length field, URL field, content_size field, num_content_descriptorsfield, content_descriptor( ) field, number_events field, event_id field,action field, destination_included field, diffusion_included field,data_included field, destination field, diffusion field, data_sizefield, data_bytes field, num_app_descriptors field, app_descriptor( )field, num_TPT_descriptors field, and/or TPT_descriptor( ) field.

expire_date_included field shall indicate whether the expire_date fieldis included. The value ‘1’ means it is included; the value ‘0’ means itis not included.

segment_id_length field shall indicate the length in bytes of thesegment_id field.

segment_id field shall contain the bytes of the segment id, which shallhave the same semantics as the “id” attribute of the TPT XML format.

base_URL_length field shall indicate the length in bytes of the base_URLfield.

base_URL field shall contain the bytes of the base URL, which shall havethe same semantics as the baseURL attribute of the TPT XML format.

expire_date field shall indicate the date and time of the expiration ofthe information included in this TPT instance when present. If thereceiver caches the TPT, it can be re-used until the expireDate. Theunsigned integer shall be interpreted as the number of GPS seconds since00:00:00 UTC, 6 Jan. 1980, minus the GPS-UTC_offset, as that term isdefined in the ATSC PSIP standard (PSIP).

trigger_server_URL_length field shall indicate the length in bytes ofthe trigger_server_URL field. When the value of this field is 0. Itshall indicate that internet delivery of individual Activation Triggersis not available.

trigger_server_URL field shall contain the bytes of the Trigger ServerURL, which shall have the same semantics as the URL attribute of theLiveTrigger element of the TPT XML format, when the value of thetrigger_server_URL_length field is not 0.

trigger_delivery_type shall indicate the delivery mode of individualActivation Triggers over the Internet. The value ‘0’ shall indicate thatHTTP short polling is being used. The value ‘1’ shall indicate thateither HTTP long polling or HTTP streaming is being used.

poll_period field shall indicate the recommended number of secondsbetween polls, when HTTP short polling is being used.

num_apps_in_table field shall indicate the number of applications (TDOs)described in this TPT instance.

app_id field shall contain an identifier for this application (theapplication described in this iteration of the num_apps_in_table loop.It shall be unique within this TPT instance.

app_type_field shall indicate whether the app_type field is included forthis application. The value ‘1’ means it is included. The value ‘0’means it is not included.

app_name_included field shall indicate whether the app_name field isincluded for this application. The value ‘1’ means it is included; thevalue ‘0’ means it is not included.

global_id_included field shall indicate whether the global_id field isincluded for this application. The value ‘1’ means it is included. Thevalue ‘0’ means it is not included.

app_version_included field shall indicate whether the app_version fieldis included for this application. The value ‘1’ means it is included.The value ‘0’ means it is not included.

cookie_space_included field shall indicate whether the cookie_spacefield is included for this application. The value ‘1’ means it isincluded. The value ‘0’ means it is not included.

frequency_of use_included field shall indicate whether the frequency_ofuse field is included for this application. The value ‘1’ means it isincluded. The value ‘0’ means it is not included.

expire_date_included field shall indicate whether the expire_date fieldis included for this application. The value ‘1’ means it is included.The value ‘0’ means it is not included.

app_type field shall indicate the format type of this application whenpresent. The value 0 shall indicate that the application is a TDOconforming to the specifications in this version of this standard. Ifthis field is not present, the value shall default to 0. Other valuesrepresenting other formats could be defined in future versions of thisstandard.

app_name_field shall indicate the length in bytes of the app_name fieldimmediately following it, when present. The value 0 for this field shallindicate that no app_name field is present for this application.

app_name field shall have the same semantics as the appName attribute ofthe TDO element in the TPT XML format, when present.

global_id_length field shall indicate the length in bytes of theglobal_id field immediately following it, when present. The value 0 forthis field shall indicate that no global_id field is present for thisapplication.

global_id field shall have the same semantics as the globalId attributeof the TDO element in the TPT XML format, when present.

app_version field has the same semantics as the appVersion attribute ofthe TDO element in the TPT XML format, when present.

cookie_space field shall have the same semantics as the cookieSpaceattribute of the TDO element in the TPT XML format, when present.

frequency_of use field shall have the same semantics as thefrequencyOfUse attribute of the TDO element in the TPT XML format, whenpresent.

expire_date field shall have the same semantics as the expireDateattribute of the TDO element in the TPT XML format, when present.

test app field indicates whether or not this application is a testapplication, intended to be ignored by ordinary receivers. The value ‘1’shall mean it is a test application. The value ‘0’ shall mean it is nota test application.

available_on_internet field indicates whether or not this application isavailable via the Internet or not. The value ‘1’ shall mean it isavailable via the Internet; the value ‘0’ shall mean it is not availablevia the Internet.

available_in_broadcast field indicates whether or not this applicationis available via the broadcast or not. The value ‘1’ shall mean it isavailable via the broadcast. The value ‘0’ shall mean it is notavailable via the broadcast.

number_URLs field shall indicate the number of files that comprise thisapplication.

URL_length field shall indicate the length of the URL field followingit.

URL field shall have the same semantics as the URL attribute of the TDOelement in the TPT XML format.

number_content_items field shall indicate the number of content itemsthat are to be downloaded for use by this application.

updates_avail field indicates whether this content item will be updatedfrom time to time—i.e., whether it a set of static files or a real-timedata feed. The value ‘1’ shall indicate that it will be updated. Thevalue ‘0’ shall indicate that it will not be updated.

avail_internet field indicates whether the file(s) that comprise thiscontent item can be downloaded via the Internet or not. The value ‘1’shall mean that they are available for downloading via the Internet. Thevalue ‘0’ shall mean they are not available.

avail_broadcast field indicates whether the file(s) that comprise thiscontent item can be downloaded via the broadcast or not. The value ‘1’shall mean that they are available for downloading via the broadcast.The value ‘0’ shall mean they are not available.

content_size_included field indicates whether or not the content_sizefield is included or not for this application. The value ‘1’ shall meanit is included; the value ‘0’ shall mean it is not included.

number_URLs field shall indicate the number of files that comprise thiscontent item.

URL_length field shall indicate the length of the URL field followingit.

URL field shall have the same semantics as the URL attribute of theContentItem child element of the TDO element in the TPT XML format.

content_size field shall have the same semantics as the contentSizeattribute of the ContentItem child element of the TDO element in the TPTXML format, when present.

num_content_descriptors field shall indicate the number of contentdescriptors in the descriptor loop immediately following it.

content_descriptor( ) field shall be a descriptor conforming to theMPEG-2 descriptor format (tag, length, data), as specified in the MPEG-2Systems standard [13818-1]. It shall provide additional informationabout this content item. Among the descriptors that may be included inthis descriptor loop is the Capabilities descriptor, indicating receivercapabilities needed for a meaningful presentation of this content item.

number_events field shall indicate the number of events defined for thisTDO.

event_id field shall contain an identifier for this event (the eventdescribed in this iteration of the number_events loop). It shall beunique within the scope of this application. The event is referencedwithin Activation Triggers by the combination of app_id and event_id.

action field shall have the same semantics as the action attribute ofthe Event child element of the TDO element in the TPT XML format.

destination_included field shall indicate whether or not the destinationfield is included for this event. The value ‘1’ shall indicate that itis included. The value ‘0’ shall indicate that it is not included.

diffusion_included field shall indicate whether or not the diffusionfield is included for this event. The value ‘1’ shall indicate that itis included. The value ‘0’ shall indicate that it is not included.

data_included field shall indicate whether or not the data_size anddata_bytes fields are included for this event. The value ‘1’ shallindicate that they are included. The value ‘0’ shall indicate that theyare not included.

destination field shall be the same as the semantics of the destinationattribute of the Event child element of the TDO element in the TPT XMLformat, when present.

diffusion field shall be the same as the semantics of the diffusionattribute of the Event child element of the TDO element in the TPT XMLformat, when present.

data_size field shall indicate the size of the data_bytes fieldimmediately following it, when present.

data_bytes field, when present, shall provide data related to thisevent. Whenever the event is activated, the target application will beable to read the data and use it to help carry out the desired action.The content of this field shall be identical to the content of thecorresponding Data child element of the corresponding Event childelement of the corresponding TDO element in the TPT XML format, exceptthat this field contains the raw binary value, and the Data element inthe TPT XML format contains a base64 encoding of the binary value.

num_app_descriptors field shall indicate the number of descriptors inthe descriptor loop immediately following it.

app_descriptor( ) field shall be a descriptor conforming to the MPEG-2descriptor format (tag, length, data), as specified in the MPEG-2Systems standard [13818-1]. It shall provide additional informationabout this application (TDO). Among the descriptors that may be includedin this descriptor loop is the Capabilities descriptor defined insection 8.3 of the ATSC NRT standard [NRT], indicating receivercapabilities needed for a meaningful presentation of this application.

num_TPT_descriptors field shall indicate the number of descriptors inthe descriptor loop immediately following it.

TPT_descriptor( ) field shall be a descriptor conforming to the MPEG-2descriptor format (tag, length, data), as specified in the MPEG-2Systems standard [13818-1]. It shall provide additional informationabout this TPT. Among the descriptors that may be included in thisdescriptor loop is the Capabilities descriptor defined in section 8.3 ofthe ATSC NRT standard [NRT], indicating receiver capabilities needed fora meaningful presentation of the interactive service represented by thisTPT.

FIG. 16 shows the structure of TPT section according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

When TPTs are delivered in the broadcast stream, the TPT of binaryformat shall be used for each TPT instance (where a TPT instance isdefined by the value of its segment_id field). Each TPT shall beencapsulated in NRT-style private sections with structure as definedbelow, by dividing each TPT into blocks and inserting the blocks intothe tpt_bytes( ) fields of sections that have a common value oftable_id, protocol_version TPT_data_version and sequence_number fields.The blocks shall be inserted into the sections in order of ascendingsection_number field values. The private sections shall be carried inthe Service Signaling Channel (SSC) of the IP subnet of the virtualchannel to which the TPT pertains, as the terms “Service SignalingChannel” and “IP subnet” are defined in the ATSC NRT standard [NRT]. Thesequence_number fields in the sections are used to distinguish differentTPT instances carried in the same SSC.

The semantics of the section_syntax_indicator, private_indicator, andsection_length fields shall be the same as the semantics of the fieldsof the same names in the NRT_information_table_section( ) defined in theATSC NRT standard [NRT].

A TPT section includes table_id field, protocol_version field,sequence_number field, TPT_data_version field, current_next_indicatorfield, section_number field, last section_number field, service_idfield, and/or tpt_bytes( ) field.

table_id field shall identify this table section as belonging to a TDOParameters Table instance.

protocol_version field shall indicate the major version number of thedefinition of this table and the TPT instance carried in it, and the loworder 4 bits shall indicate the minor version number. The major versionnumber for this version of this standard shall be set to 1. Receiversare expected to discard instances of the AMT indicating major versionvalues they are not equipped to support. The minor version number forthis version of the standard shall be set to 0. Receivers are expectedto not discard instances of the AMT indicating minor version values theyare not equipped to support. In this case they are expected to ignoreany descriptors they do not recognize, and to ignore any fields thatthey do not support.

sequence_number field shall be the same as the sequence_number of allother sections of this TPT instance and different from thesequence_number of all sections of any other TPT instance in thisService Signaling Channel. The values of the sequence_number fields ofthe different TPT instances should reflect the order in which thesegments appear in the broadcast stream.

TPT_data_version field shall indicate the version number of this TPTinstance, where the TPT instance is defined by its segment_id. Theversion number shall be incremented by 1 modulo 32 when any field in theTPT instance changes.

current_next_indicator field shall always be set to ‘1’ for TPTsections, indicating that the TPT sent is always the current TPT for thesegment identified by its segment_id.

section_number field shall give the section number of this TPT instancesection, where the TPT instance is identified by its segment_id. Thesection_number of the first section in an TPT instance shall be 0x00.The section_number shall be incremented by 1 with each additionalsection in the TPT instance.

last_section_number field shall give the number of the last section(i.e., the section with the highest section_number) of the TPT instanceof which this section is a part.

service_id field shall specify the service_id associated with theinteractive service offering the content items described in this tableinstance.

tpt_bytes( ) field shall consist of a block of the TPT instance carriedin part by this section. When the tpt_bytes( ) fields of all thesections of this table instance are concatenated in order of theirsection_number fields, the result shall be the complete TPT instance.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the structure of a receiver according to anembodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the receiver may include anantenna 17010, a tuner 17020, a VSB or DVB demodulator 17030, anMPEG-2TS System Decoder 17040, a caption module 17050, a trigger module17060, a web browser 17070, a network protocol stack 17080, a networkinterface 17090, a UI module 17100, an audio decoder 17110, a videodecoder 17120, a speaker 17130, a display module 17140, a graphicprocessor 17150, a remote controller receiver 17160 and/or a remotecontroller 17170.

The antenna 17010 may receive a broadcast signal according to abroadcast stream.

The tuner 17020 may seek or tune to a channel of the receiver and mayinclude a radio frequency amplifier, a local oscillator, a frequencyconversion and input circuit, a seeker, etc.

The VSB or DVB demodulator 17030 may demodulate a VSB signal or a DVBsignal. The VSB or DVB demodulator 17030 may restore the modulated VSB(Vestigial Side Band) or DVB (e.g., OFDM-modulated signal) to anoriginal signal.

The MPEG-2 TS system decoder 17040 decodes the transport stream (TS) ofthe demodulated signal. The MPEG-2 TS system decoder 17040 may obtain acaption stream from the transport stream and deliver the caption streamto the caption module 17050. The MPEG-2 TS system decoder 17040 may sendthe decoded audio and video signal to the audio decoder 17110 or/and thevideo decoder 17120.

The caption module 17050 may receive the caption stream. The captionmodule 17050 may monitor service #6 or other services and determinewhether service #6 or services for transmitting the trigger is selectedand sent to the trigger module 17060 or whether caption text isprocessed and displayed on a screen. Trigger data may be delivered tothe trigger module 17060. Other caption services may be subjected tocaption text processing and sent to the graphic processor 17150.

The trigger module 17060 may parse trigger, TPT and/or AMT informationand process the parsed data. The trigger module 17060 may access thenetwork via the network protocol stack 17080 using the URI informationvalue of the trigger. The URI information value may be the address ofthe HTTP server. The trigger module 17060 may analyze the TPT filecontent to obtain the TDO URL. In addition, the trigger module 17060 mayparse the AMT to process data. Other information may be obtained throughparsing. After the AMT message has been received, the TDO URLcorresponding to the web browser is delivered according to apredetermined time and operation or the currently operating TDO may bestopped at a predetermined time. This corresponds to a TDO action andthe trigger module 17060 may send a command to the web browser tooperate. The trigger module configured to gather a plurality of TPTparameter table sections each of which includes each of a plurality ofTPT parameter blocks based on the location information in the trigger,wherein the TPT parameter table is divided into the plurality of TPTparameter blocks, and form the TPT parameter table containing metadataabout applications and interactive broadcast events targeted to theapplications using the plurality of parameter blocks.

The web browser 17070 may receive the command from the trigger module17060, a browser key code from the UI module 17100 and a browser keycode from the remote controller receiver 17160 and communicate with thenetwork protocol stack 17080.

The network protocol stack 17080 may communicate with the trigger module17060 and the web browser to access the server via the network interface17090.

The network interface 17090 performs common connection of several otherapparatuses or connection of a network computer and an external network.The network interface may be connected to the server to download a TDO,a TPT, an AMT, etc.

The UI module 17100 may receive information input by a viewer using theremote controller 17170 through the remote controller receiver 17160. Ifthe received information is related to a service using the network, thebrowser key code may be delivered to the web browser. If the receivedinformation is related to currently displayed video, the signal may bedelivered to the display module 17140 via the graphic processor 17150.

The audio decoder 17110 may decode the audio signal received from theMPEG-2 TS System Decoder 17040. Thereafter, the decoded audio signal maybe sent to the speaker and output to the viewer.

The video decoder 17120 may decode the video signal received from theMPEG-2 TS system decoder 17040. Thereafter, the decoded video signal maybe sent to the display module 17140 to be output to the viewer.

The speakers 17130 may output the audio signal to the viewer.

The display module 17140 may output the video signal to the viewer.

The graphic processor 17150 may perform graphic processing with respectto the caption text received from the caption module 17050 and theviewer input information received from the UI module 17100. Theprocessed information may be delivered to the display module 17140.

The remote controller receiver 17160 may receive information from theremote controller 17170. At this time, the key code may be delivered tothe UI module 17100 and the browser key code may be delivered to the webbrowser.

The remote controller 17170 delivers the signal input by the viewer tothe remote controller receiver 17160. The remote controller 17170 mayreceive viewer input for changing a virtual channel. In addition, theremote controller may receive information selected by the viewer withrespect to the application. The remote controller 17170 may deliver thereceived information to the remote controller receiver 17160. At thistime, the information may be remotely delivered using infrared (IR)light at a distance out of a predetermined range.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing the structure of a receiver according toanother embodiment of the present invention. In the case, a set top boxcan receive a broadcast signal and transmit a processed broadcast signalto a broadcast receiver via a high definition multimedia interface(HDMI) or an external interface.

The receiver may include an antenna 18010, a tuner 18020, a Set-Top Box18030, a VSB or DVB demodulator 18040, a HDMI interface 18050, a MPEG-2TS system decoder 18060, a caption module 18070, a trigger module 18080,a web browser 18090, a network protocol stack 18100, a network interface18110, a UI module 18120, an ACR module 18130, an audio decoder 18140, avideo decoder 18150, a speaker 18160, a display module 18170, a graphicprocessor 18180, a remote controller receiver 18190, and a remotecontroller 18200.

In this case, since video and audio of a broadcast stream is raw data, atrigger included in a caption stream may not be received. Details of thepresent invention will be described below.

Here, the modules excluding the Set-Top Box 18030, the HDMI 18050 andthe ACR module 18130 are similar to the modules described in theembodiment of FIG. 17 in terms of the role.

The Set-Top Box 18030 may restore a compressed signal received from thevideo server through a digital network to an original video and audiosignal. The TV may be an Internet user interface.

The HDMI 18050 may be a high-definition multimedia interface which is anon-compression digital video/audio interface standard. The HDMI 18050may provide an interface between the Set-Top Box 18030 and an AVapparatus, that is, the audio decoder 18140 and the video decoder 18150.

The ACR module 18130 may automatically recognize broadcast content fromthe audio decoder 18140 and the video decoder 18150. Based on thecurrently recognized content, a query may be sent to the ACR server viathe trigger module 18080 and the network interface 18110 to receive theTPT/AMT for the trigger.

Although the description of the present invention is explained withreference to each of the accompanying drawings for clarity, it ispossible to design new embodiment(s) by merging the embodiments shown inthe accompanying drawings with each other. And, if a recording mediumreadable by a computer, in which programs for executing the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description are recorded, is designed innecessity of those skilled in the art, it may belong to the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

An apparatus and method according to the present invention may benon-limited by the configurations and methods of the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description. And, the embodiments mentionedin the foregoing description can be configured in a manner of beingselectively combined with one another entirely or in part to enablevarious modifications.

In addition, a method according to the present invention can beimplemented with processor-readable codes in a processor-readablerecording medium provided to a network device. The processor-readablemedium may include all kinds of recording devices capable of storingdata readable by a processor. The processor-readable medium may includeone of ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tapes, floppy discs, optical datastorage devices, and the like for example and also include such acarrier-wave type implementation as a transmission via Internet.Furthermore, as the processor-readable recording medium is distributedto a computer system connected via network, processor-readable codes canbe saved and executed according to a distributive system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

Both apparatus and method inventions are mentioned in this specificationand descriptions of both of the apparatus and method inventions may becomplementarily applicable to each other.

Although the description of the present invention is explained withreference to each of the accompanying drawings for clarity, it ispossible to design new embodiment(s) by merging the embodiments shown inthe accompanying drawings with each other. And, if a recording mediumreadable by a computer, in which programs for executing the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description are recorded, is designed innecessity of those skilled in the art, it may belong to the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

An apparatus and method according to the present invention may benon-limited by the configurations and methods of the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description. And, the embodiments mentionedin the foregoing description can be configured in a manner of beingselectively combined with one another entirely or in part to enablevarious modifications.

In addition, a method according to the present invention can beimplemented with processor-readable codes in a processor-readablerecording medium provided to a network device. The processor-readablemedium may include all kinds of recording devices capable of storingdata readable by a processor. The processor-readable medium may includeone of ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tapes, floppy discs, optical datastorage devices, and the like for example and also include such acarrier-wave type implementation as a transmission via Internet.Furthermore, as the processor-readable recording medium is distributedto a computer system connected via network, processor-readable codes canbe saved and executed according to a distributive system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

Both apparatus and method inventions are mentioned in this specificationand descriptions of both of the apparatus and method inventions may becomplementarily applicable to each other.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide aninteractive broadcast service or an interactive broadcast event relatedto broadcast content using an existing broadcast system.

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately confirmwhen additional information related to broadcast content is displayedand to provide the additional information to a user at an appropriatetime.

According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain additionalinformation related to broadcast content and to provide the additionalinformation to a viewer at an appropriate time even in a device whichdoes not directly receive a broadcast signal.

Various embodiments have been described in the best mode for carryingout the invention.

The present invention is applicable to fields related to broadcastservice provision.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing a broadcast signalincluding an interactive broadcast service at a transmitter, the methodcomprising: generating an parameter table containing metadata aboutapplications and interactive broadcast events targeted to theapplications; dividing the parameter table into a plurality of parameterblocks; inserting each of the parameter blocks into each of a pluralityof parameter table sections; generating a trigger which is a signalingelement to identify signaling and establish timing of playout of theinteractive broadcast events; inserting the trigger into a closedcaption channel of the broadcast signal; transmitting the broadcastsignal including the closed caption channel and a specific channelcarrying the plurality of parameter table sections, wherein the triggerincludes location information specifying a location of the parametertable in the broadcast signal.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theparameter table section includes: table ID field identifying theparameter table section, protocol version field indicating a majorversion number and a minor version number of definition of the parametertable, parameter table data version field indicating a version number ofthe parameter table, and sequence number field having a value same asthat of all other parameter table sections of the parameter table. 3.The method of claim 2, wherein the inserting step comprising: generatingthe plurality of parameter table sections having common value of thetable ID field, protocol version field, parameter table data versionfield and sequence number field; inserting each of the parameter blocksinto each of the plurality of parameter table sections.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the parameter table section further includes sectionnumber field specifying a section number of a parameter table section,and the section number is incremented by 1 with each additionalparameter table section in the parameter table.
 5. The method of claim2, wherein the parameter table section further includes section numberfield specifying an order of the parameter table section in theplurality of parameter table sections.
 6. The method of claim 4, whereinthe parameter table section further includes service identificationfield specifying an identifier associated with the interactive broadcastservice offering content items described in the parameter table.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the parameter table sections are transmittedin advance of use via non-real time transmission.
 8. The method of claim1, further comprising: encoding type information specifying that thetrigger is transmitted via the closed caption channel of the broadcastsignal; and inserting the encoded type information into the closedcaption channel.
 9. A receiver for processing a broadcast signalincluding an interactive broadcast service, the receiver comprising:receiving device configured to receive the broadcast signal including aclosed caption channel and a specific channel carrying a plurality ofparameter table sections; extracting device configured to extract atrigger which is a signaling element to identify signaling and establishtiming of playout of interactive broadcast events from the closedcaption channel of the broadcast signal, wherein the trigger includeslocation information specifying a location of a parameter table in thebroadcast signal; trigger module configured to gather a plurality ofparameter table sections each of which includes each of a plurality ofparameter blocks based on the location information in the trigger,wherein the parameter table is divided into the plurality of parameterblocks, and form the parameter table containing metadata aboutapplications and interactive broadcast events targeted to theapplications using the plurality of parameter blocks; and processorconfigured to provide the interactive broadcast service based on theformed parameter table.
 10. The receiver of claim 9, wherein theparameter table section includes: table ID field identifying theparameter table section, protocol version field indicating a majorversion number and a minor version number of definition of the parametertable, parameter table data version field indicating a version number ofthe parameter table, and sequence number field having a value same asthat of all other parameter table sections of the parameter table. 11.The receiver of claim 10, wherein the trigger module further configuredto: gather the plurality of parameter table sections having common valueof the table ID field, protocol version field, parameter table dataversion field and sequence number field; and extract each of theparameter blocks from each of the plurality of parameter table sections.12. The receiver of claim 10, wherein the parameter table sectionfurther includes section number field specifying a section number of aparameter table section, and the section number is incremented by 1 witheach additional parameter table section in the parameter table.
 13. Thereceiver of claim 12, wherein the parameter table section furtherincludes service identification field specifying an identifierassociated with the interactive broadcast service offering content itemsdescribed in the parameter table.
 14. The receiver of claim 10, whereinthe parameter table section further includes section number fieldspecifying an order of the parameter table section in the plurality ofparameter table sections.
 15. The receiver of claim 9, wherein theparameter table sections are transmitted in advance of use via non-realtime transmission.
 16. The receiver of claim 9, wherein the extractingdevice further configured to: extract type information specifying thatthe trigger is transmitted via the closed caption channel of thebroadcast signal.